


Everybody hurts

by envyfangirl



Series: Slash_100 challenge [1]
Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Drinking & Talking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sleeptalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-09-11 04:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8954116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/envyfangirl/pseuds/envyfangirl
Summary: After Henley left, Merritt finds out something interesting about the Amazing Atlas.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This will be 100 fics starring J. Daniel Atlas and paired with various others.
> 
> Written for the Slash_100 challenge.  
> Prompt: #63. Hurt.

Ever since Henley left the other three Horsemen weren’t quite alright. Dylan didn’t help much either. “The Eye has a plan.” “You have to wait.” “I take my orders directly from the Eye.” “Be patient.”  
  
Six months in and they still had no contact whatever with the Eye. Henley being who she was, never did like waiting and biding time, so she up and packed her bags and left.  
  
Daniel tried pretending that he couldn’t care less about Henley. And if he was more of an asshole against his partners, well… they already knew he wasn’t a nice guy. Nevertheless, it didn’t cause him any joy sending Jack’s shoulders slumping, nor did it, shockingly, cause him pleasure seeing Merrit’s jaw clench in aggravation. It was just his way of coping, sending his own frustration out at the people in his nearest vicinity.

~~~

“Daniel, if you do not mind, I’d like to do a reading of you, free of charge of course, since we’re such good friends.” Merrit said from where he was lying on the couch.  
  
Daniel rolled his eyes even while he shuffled his cards. Merrit’s words were said jovially enough, though Daniel knew them for false. As did Jack, who was sitting curled up on the armchair. He glanced from Merrit to Daniel, obviously wondering who was going to be the one to get hurt this time.  
  
“By all means, if that’s what makes you feel better, go right ahead.”  
  
“Due to your control issues everything has to be how you envisioned them, and you get…  _edgy_  if they don’t.”  
  
“It doesn’t take a mentalist to figure that out,” Daniel snapped, unconsciously echoing Henley’s words.  
  
“Your control issues go so far, in fact,” Merrit continued, “that you always need the last word in a conversation, no matter how much you shove your foot in your mouth.”  
  
Daniel scoffed, determinately staying silent, just to prove that he didn’t. He went back to fiddling with his cards.  
  
“Owing to your lack of emotional availability you can’t make connections with other human beings, and as a result push away anyone who cares for you.”  
  
Daniel’s bemused smile slipped from his face, a darker expression replacing it.  
  
“The fact that you couldn’t please Henley sexually is part of the reason she left the Horsemen. Tell me, am I close?”  
  
Daniel looked down at the cards he was holding. “Right, on all accounts, except one.” His hands were rigidly shuffling them. "I never slept with Henley."  
  
Both Merrit and Jack were surprised at that fact. Without another word Daniel put his deck on the table and walked away.

~~~

Daniel leaned on the railing of the balcony. He gazed down at the city below. The lights were shining bright, the city alive with activity.  
  
“Enjoying the view, are we?”  
  
He looked back over his shoulder at Merrit, who leaned against the doorframe. He turned back for a moment before he pushed himself off and strode passed Merrit back inside. Daniel flopped down on the couch, slouching like Merrit had never seen him do before.  
  
“I believe an apology is in order.”  
  
Daniel snorted as Merrit put down the bottle of Jack Daniels and two glasses.  
  
"Really, you're so clever sometimes, aren't you?"  
  
"Well, we've got a Jack in our midst, and a Daniel, and you've got a J. in your name. Might be a Jack yourself."  
  
Daniel snorted again.  
  
"Am I right?' Merrit asked as he sat down.  
  
Daniel grabbed the bottle and poured them both a generous amount. "I'm not nearly drunk enough to talk about personal details."  
  
Merrit raised his eyebrows at that.  
  
Daniel sipped at his glass and said nothing more. 

~~~

  
They were more than halfway down the bottle, and a lot of debate about tricks and gimmicks, that Merrit thought the time was right.  
  
“When we first met, there was clear tension between you and our Henley.”  
  
“As we both already said, we weren’t a couple.” There was only the slightest bite in his voice. “She never moved further up the rank than my assistant, due to me, how did you call it, shoving my foot in my mouth.”  
  
"And about what Henley said, about--"  
  
"About the three minutes?" Daniel scoffed. "You don't need truth to spin lies. Every magician knows that." Daniel took another sip of Jack Daniels. "Though there is a thread of truth in it." He was almost reluctant to admit it.  
  
"Care to talk about it?"  
  
Daniel gave a halfhearted shake of his head. He stared at the ground for so long Merrit thought he wouldn’t speak again.  
  
"Henley used to be my assistent, you know?"  
  
Daniel was further gone than Merrit had thought if he thought Merrit didn't know that.  
  
"She lasted quite long, all things considered." He kept talking. He balanced his arms on his knees and he was talking in the general direction of the floor.  
  
“Last show I did I had Henley, Jessica, Rebecca and Maureen.”  
  
"You had four women working for you?" Merrit was impressed.  
  
Daniel nodded. "Four at any given time, though none of them lasted long. And I had three men behind the scenes working for me. They usually lasted longer. Henley lasted longest by far, though she was far from trustworthy." Another sip of his glass. "At least once a week she'd pack her bags and said she wasn't coming back."  
  
Merrit learned more and more about his partners than he thought he would.  
  
"The first time she did that, it was half an hour before a show. I was scrambling to cover her ass, trying as hard as I might to teach another girl to take her place. The pressure I put on her made her quit the following day. Of course Henley showed up ten minutes beforehand."  
  
Merrit didn't say anything. There was no need. Given enough to drink, Daniel had no problem talking about private matters.  
  
"Then one day she packed her bags and didn't return." Daniel stayed silent for a long time. He stared down at his glass. before he drank; first only sipping, then tipping all of its contents down his throat.  
  
Merrit remained silent. Henley’s leaving their little familly had hit them all hard, but for Daniel, who already lost her before, this must have been a very hard blow.  
  
He talked on even as he poured another drink. “She wasn’t the only one that left, but she was by far the best of them. Pretty to look at, good with her hands, a good assistent.” He slid the bottle across the suface of the table. “Nevertheless she abandoned me, only because I once said she was fat.  _Once._ ”  
  
Merrit tapped his fingers on the back of the couch. “So Henley left you,” he concluded. “What about the rest of your crew?”  
  
Daniel twirled the Jack Daniels around in his glass, his eyes faraway. "They thought I didn't hear them whispering behind my back." He used his showman's voice for his next words. " 'The Amazing Atlas, chasing girls away in three minutes’ time."  
  
So that was what the three minutes snipe of Henley's meant.  
  
"It's a wonder you didn't know, what with Henley here about. She's never been a gossip, though, so maybe that's why."  
  
It seemed that no matter if he was drunk or sober, Daniel talked a mile a minute.  
  
"Every girl that worked with me knew I was a dick. Don't even deny it," he said as Merrit opened his mouth. "You've said it, and I know the others have thought it, too. I don’t need to be a mentalist to know that. People have been telling me that for longer than I can remember.”  
  
Merrit lay a hand on Daniel’s arm. Daniel glanced at it briefly.  
  
“It stopped bothering me years ago,” he spoke into his glass.  
  
His words said one thing, but his body said the opposite.  
  
"I had no chance with any of them. They all knew what I was like." Daniel slouched even further. “Sometimes, after a show, there were fans who stopped by my room." Daniel drank again. He put his glass down more carefully than before. "My crew knew why they came and they all whispered, 'Three minutes.' I couldn't stand it. It put me on edge. So they always stormed off because I pissed them off."  
  
He reached for the bottle but it was just out of reach. His fingers caught the neck. The bottle tipped his way and almost fell over if Merrit hadn’t caught it. Daniel snorted and let his head fall against Merrit’s shoulder.  
  
Merrit put the bottle upright and wrapped an arm around Daniel. “I think you’ve had enough for tonight.”  
  
“I think I can decide that for myself,” Daniel snapped. He pushed himself away from Merrit. “I’m going to bed.” He got up, but almost fell over. “Wow.”  
  
Merrit rose, too, using one arm to support the young magician. “Okido, time for bed.”  
  
“I might throw up on you.”  
  
“Let’s try to avoid that now, Danny boy.”  
  
"James."  
  
"What was that?"  
  
Daniel turned his eyes to him, his long lashes blinking at him. "Not Jack. It's James. James Daniel Atlas."  
  
“Good to know,” Merrit said as he guided James Daniel Atlas to bed.  
  
He managed to get Daniel’s jumper and his shoes off before he collapsed onto the bed. He wasn't even beginning to take off his jeans. That was one step too far. He tucked the blanket around him.  
  
Daniel mumbled something just as Merrit left.  
  
"What was that?" he asked.  
  
Daniel mumbled something again.  
  
Merrit leaned closer to catch the words. That's when he noticed it. Daniel wasn't talking to him, per se. In fact, he was already asleep. He was merely talking in his sleep. Merrit chuckled as he closed the door softly behind him. Figured, even in his sleep he couldn't shut up.


End file.
